Monday, November 30, 2009

Back in April, I joined a group of readers who, at Moonrat's suggestion made lists of 100 books to "fill in the gaps" in their reading lists. I am such a fickle reader that I knew it was unlikely I'd work my way through my own list with any consistency. There's a list of books I've read in 2009 at the sidebar and clearly, I have a short attention span. What was I thinking when I read The Iliad (not on the list) instead of The Odyssey? On the other hand, Proust, Pynchon and Wallace were no walk in the park.

Nevertheless, here's the list of 100 I came up with April with the books I've read since then in bold font:

1. The Odyssey, by Homer2. The Oresteia, by Aeschylus3. Oedipus the King, by Sophocles4. Medea, by Euripides5. The Aeneid, by Virgil6. The Confessions, by Saint Augustine7. The Divine Comedy, by Dante8. The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli9. Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes10. Utopia, by Sir Thomas More11. Plays and Poems, William Shakespeare12. Paradise Lost, by John Milton13. The Misanthrope, by Moliere14. Pensees, by Blaise Pascal15. Phaedra, by Jean Racine16. Candide, by Voltaire17. Faust, Parts One and Two, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe18. Cousin Bette, by Honore de Balzac19. The Charterhouse of Parma, by Stendhal20. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert21. The Haunted Pool, George Sand22. Bleak House, by Charles Dickens23. Essays, Matthew Arnold24. The Stones of Venice, John Ruskin25. Marius the Epicurean, by Walter Pater26. On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill27. The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope28. The Picture of Dorian Gray29. Middlemarch, by George Eliot30. Dead Souls, by Nikolay Gogol31. The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky32. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy33. The Tales, by Anton Chekhov32. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, by Frederick Douglass33. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin34. The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James35. The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James36. Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino37. Baltasar and Blimunda, by Jose Saramago38. In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust (I've read volumes 1 - 3)39. Nausea, by Jean-Paul Sartre40. The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir41. The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, Essays by Albert Camus42. Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy43. Howards End, by E.M. Forster44. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf45. Ulysses, by James Joyce46. Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, by Samuel Beckett47. The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing48. The Complete Stories, by Franz Kafka49. Doctor Faustus, by Thomas Mann50. The Man Without Qualities, by Robert Musil51. The Tin Drum, by Gunter Grass52. The Master and the Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov53. Collected Stories, by Isaac Babel54. The Cancer Ward, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn55. Hunger, by Knut Hamsun56. Barabbas, by Par Lagerkvist57. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera58. Ficciones, by Jorge Luis Borges59. Canto General, by Pablo Neruda60. A House for Mr. Biswas, by V.S. Naipaul61. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe62. Foe, by J.M. Coetzee63. Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie64. Under the Volcano, by Malcom Lowry65. Surfacing, by Margaret Atwood66. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton67. My Antonia, by Willa Cather68. The Making of Americans, by Gertrude Stein69. Sister Carrie, by Theodore Dreiser70. Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson71. The Cantos, by Ezra Pound72. Collected Stories, by Katherine Anne Porter73. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner74. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston75. Herzog, by Saul Bellow76. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison77. The Recognitions, by William Gaddis78. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin79. Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon80. Zuckerman Bound: A Trilogy and Epilogue, by Philip Roth81. Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels, by John Updike82. Angels in America, by Tony Kushner83. Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace84. The Sea, The Sea, by Iris Murdoch85. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard86. Beloved, by Toni Morrison87. The Emigrants, by W.G. Sebald88. The Age of Reason, by John-Paul Sartre89. American Pastoral, by Philip Roth90. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte91. War and Peace, by Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy92. Walden Pond, by Henry David Thoreau93. Selected Works, by Ralph Waldo Emerson94. Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne95. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, by David Hume96. Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirov97. Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson98. Exit Ghost, by Philip Roth99. A Mercy, by Toni Morrison100. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

I suppose it's time to revisit and revise this list -- at least so I can replace some of the titles I'll probably never read with some I already have.

Somehow I've gotten it into my head that in January there may be a big online reading of Roberto Bolaño's 2666. Anyone interested?

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Literary Quote

It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.